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Kinscollins

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  1. Re Real solution to dropouts when using AirPlay with AirPort Express. Well-documented on web forums is the sad fact that the AirPort Express when used with AirPlay is unstable if outputting through digital out (tosLink) going to a high-end DAC (and then on to your amplifier). Dropouts are so prevalent as to render the music unlistenable. This has been the situation with all Expresses and all firmware releases for the past two years. (Please note that your setup has to be exactly as I described for the dropouts to occur, namely digital out + high-end DAC -- mine is exaSound e20, $2,500.) I have tried various purported "solutions" to the dropout problem (changing my AirPort Extreme's network security settings, WiFi frequency, firmware, etc.). None worked. I made one key discovery in the course of my web research. That was when I read that one observer had proved that the network wasn't involved in producing his dropouts at all: the dropouts were still present when this observer didn't use WiFi or AirPlay but connected his Express by Ethernet to his iMac running iTunes. He still had dropouts in his sound system. Ergo, the Express alone is the culprit. The observer attributed the dropouts to jitter in the digital signal from the Express which all high-end DACs are unable to lock on to consistently. Whatever the actual cause of the dropouts, the solution is ridiculously simple. Buy an Apple-TV and use it as an exact replacement for the Express. Nothing else needs to be changed or adjusted. In fact don't even attempt to "set up" the Apple-TV for using just audio out for AirPlay. The Apple-TV is set up by default for this use out of the box. Surprisingly, at the Palo Alto Apple store where I bought the Apple-TV, the sales clerk and the networking expert were both not sure my use of the Apple-TV device for just audio out -- without any TV involved -- would work. Also they were certain I would have to hook the device up to my TV (I don't have one) in order to go through the lengthy setup that would surely be necessary (using tech note HT5900). Obligingly, I definitely intended to use the complex procedures of HT5900 for setting the device up. "But first," I said to myself, "let me just plug in the Apple-TV and see what happens." This simple substitution worked like a charm. I merely took out the tosLink cable from the Express, plugged it instead into the Apple-TV, plugged in the power cord, and let the little device initialize. Then, as I always did with the Express when I used it with analog out, went to "Music" on my iPad, used command center to set the music output destination for AirPlay. "Apple-TV" was in the destination-list that popped up, which I selected. Clear, perfect audio then sounded from my new high-end sound system, and I haven't had a single dropout since I switched to using the Apple-TV. Why isn't this simple solution to the nasty dropout problem of the AirPort Express, complained about in thousands of forum contributions over the years, generally known?
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